Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls
On 24 June 2025, the Election Commission (EC) notified that it will conduct a Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar before the elections. The exercise requires all the voters from the state to fill forms to be included in the voter list. People whose names were not in the 2003 voter lists need to provide additional documents. The notification also mentioned that the documents needed to be submitted within a month (with 25 July being the deadline).
Further, the voters need to provide one of the eleven documents mandated by the EC, with the common documents such as the Aadhaar card, voter ID card and ration cards, not included as valid documents. A significant number of people in Bihar do not have any of the 11 documents. Furthermore, a significant population of the state migrate in other parts of India for work or study and it is estimated that at least 75 lakh (7.5 million) people from Bihar migrate to other parts of India. [79] Critics have argued it would be difficult for such voters to be a part of this exercise. Such factors have led to fears of mass exclusion of voters. Opposition parties – such as the INDIA alliance – alleged that such an exercise will favor the ruling NDA alliance. The Election Commission denied these allegations and claimed that the exercise is lawful and constitutional. [80] [81] [82] [79]
The SIR was challenged in the Supreme Court. On 10 July, the court advised the Election Commission to consider the Aadhaar card, voter ID card and ration cards as valid documents for the exercise. [83] On 21 July, the Election Commission responded by saying that it will not accept the Aadhaar card, voter ID card and ration cards as valid documents, as suggested by the Supreme Court. [84]
In August, Tejashwi Yadav, leader of the opposition, Bihar, alleged his name was removed from the voter list after the SIR exercise. The Election commission dismissed the allegations as factually incorrect [85] and declared the EPIC number shown by him to the media was fake. The poll body asked him to submit the fake voter ID card to the ECI office by 16 August 2025. [86]
In August 2025, Rahul Gandhi made allegations against BJP about election commission. [87] [88] The ECI dismissed the allegations as misleading, [89] [90] and asked him to submit the allegations under oath or apologise to the nation. [91]
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